Trivia: Nicknames we use

[SpacePhoenix]

Class 404 (4COR) Nelsons

Not found them before

I've heard of class 60s being referred to as doughnuts due to being able to see through the grills.

Any slam door mk1 - Slammer

Don't know if the 165s and 166s were ever officially known as Networker Turbos but that's what I've always known them as.

Any class 350, 360, 380, 444, 450 and 700 (DC only mode for the 700s) - UFOs

 

[DarloRich]

nicknames I use: None

 

[341o2]

Class 55 - Deltics
Class 23 - Baby Deltics
Class 28 - CoBos

Berks & Hants route - The desert
Somerset & Dorset - The Slow & Dirty
Great Western Railway - Gods Wonderful Railway, Great Way Round
LNER - Late & never early
M & GN Joint - Muddle & Go Nowhere

I started a thread regarding alternatives for company initials,

What is now the Mid Hants - over the Alps

S&D also swift and delightful, latterly sabotaged and defeated
LMS - one 'ell of a mess
LNER - the London and Nearly Everywhere else railway

And from Canada, what was formerly the Pacific Great Eastern (now British Columbia) railway

Please Go Easy
Past God's Endurance
Prince George Eventually

 

[GW43125]

33: Crompton
47: Duff/Spoon
57: bodysnatchers (as they're beefed up 47s)
68: CATs/Thundercats/Warskips (CAT engines which sound like growling/purring)
70s: Toasters (numerous fires in early days)
313: Flat tire machines
Any desiro: b*****d things!
455/507/508: PEPs (based on the PEPs)
458/0: Juniper
460: Darth Vader
458/5: Darth Juniper
Early days of 458s: Doodlebugs (zey aim for London but zey alvays fall short...)
707: Desiro s**tty
80x: WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME (in all seriousness, IEP)

GWR: Go When Ready
GA: Later Angrier
GN: Late Northern
FGW: Worst Late Western
AW: Arriva Trains Fales
TP: Trampspennine

the list continues...

 

[EbbwJunction1]

I used (and sometimes still do) to call a HST a "Mouse", but that's just my own word.

I've heard the term "Booked Return" used for someone who goes through a door expecting there to be another carriage on the other side and finding that there isn't.

The "Old Worse and Worse" was the name given to the Oxford, Wolverhampton and Worcester Railway.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

WAGN - We Ain't Going Nowhere

Also "We are Going Nowhere".

 

[sarahj]

District line : Destruct line
Hammersmith and ****ty

I've heard some call the 313's Disco trains as thats the era they are from

 

[shredder1]

Any steam engine: Kettle.

Oh dear, whatever happend to Brits, Crabs, Semi`s, mickeys, dubdees, jubs, coffee pots, an pats

 

[Cowley]

I knew I should have left this thread well alone.
14s Teddy Bear,
20s Whistling Wardrobe, Bombs, Moose,
37s Syphons,
40s Whistlers, Buckets,
45/46s Peaks, Wagons,
56 Christmas Tree,
Electric locomotive - Can (looks like they have a ring pull on the roof)

Normals - non enthusiast passengers,
Bert and Ada - older non enthusiast passengers,
Gripper - ticket inspector,
Gripped - to have your ticket clipped
The Mule - Waterloo - Exeter route
Basher - Enthusiast who follows a particular type of traction for a hobby,
Track basher - Enthusiast who tries to travel on rare track,
Shack bashing - Enthusiast who tries to visit as many stations as possible including especially stations that only have one booked train a decade.
Bible - The large book of all railway timetables,
Crank - similar to basher,
Fester - sitting on a station for hours waiting for your favourite train to take you somewhere else,
Gen - information to help with successful bashing,
Wedged - very full train.

There are many many other silly terms too.

 

[GW43125]

I knew I should have left this thread well alone.
14s Teddy Bear,
20s Whistling Wardrobe, Bombs, Moose,
37s Syphons,
40s Whistlers, Buckets,
45/46s Peaks, Wagons,
56 Christmas Tree,
Electric locomotive - Can (looks like they have a ring pull on the roof)

Normals - non enthusiast passengers,
Bert and Ada - older non enthusiast passengers,
Gripper - ticket inspector,
Gripped - to have your ticket clipped
The Mule - Waterloo - Exeter route
Basher - Enthusiast who follows a particular type of traction for a hobby,
Track basher - Enthusiast who tries to travel on rare track,
Shack bashing - Enthusiast who tries to visit as many stations as possible including especially stations that only have one booked train a decade.
Bible - The large book of all railway timetables,
Crank - similar to basher,
Fester - sitting on a station for hours waiting for your favourite train to take you somewhere else,
Gen - information to help with successful bashing,
Wedged - very full train.

There are many many other silly terms too.

My friends and I also use "bible" to describe the platform 5 book of all locos/units-handy to ID units from a carriage number, for example.

 

[Ash Bridge]

Oh dear, whatever happend to Brits, Crabs, Semi`s, mickeys, dubdees, jubs, coffee pots, an pats

And don't forget Jinty's!

 

[bishdunster]

Bullied Q1's "Telescopes" !

 

[pne]

I've seen Class 35's referred to as "Hymek".

 

[Calthrop]

I started a thread regarding alternatives for company initials,

What is now the Mid Hants - over the Alps

S&D also swift and delightful, latterly sabotaged and defeated
LMS - one 'ell of a mess
LNER - the London and Nearly Everywhere else railway

And from Canada, what was formerly the Pacific Great Eastern (now British Columbia) railway

Please Go Easy
Past God's Endurance
Prince George Eventually

Long-suffering rail users have all over the world and “since forever”, had fun with railway undertakings’ initials. A few more such:

Stratford-on-Avon & Midland Junction: Slow, Mouldy and Jolting

In Ireland – Sligo, Leitrim & Northern Counties: Slow, Late, and Never Coming

Also “across the pond”, to go with your “Pacific Great Eastern” –

US local lines –

Leavenworth, Kansas & Western: Look, Kuss, and Wait

St. Johnsbury & Lake Champlain: St. Jesus and Late Coming

Further south, the originally US-owned-and-operated Guayaquil & Quito railroad through the Andes in Ecuador, used its initials to style itself in a self-congratulatory way, the Good and Quick. Decades later, when the railroad was long nationalised, run-down, and taking a beating from road competition; someone suggested that a better nickname would be the Grotty and Quaint.

And a bit of a macabre one from France: of the French big pre-nationalisation companies, the Paris – Lyon – Méditerranée was generally acknowledged as the most stylish, dashing, and innovative, with the fastest schedules – unfortunately, it also had the worst safety record. Cynical passengers liked to suggest that the railway’s initials PLM, really stood for “Pour Les Morts” – “for the dead”.

(I’ve always been tickled by the Pacific Great Eastern Railway’s title – it being about as far west in Canada, as you can get ! I gather that this totally non-geographical naming, originated from the undertaking’s having financial backing in its beginnings, from Britain’s Great Eastern Railway or associates thereof.)

 

[Calthrop]

Normals - non enthusiast passengers,
Bert and Ada - older non enthusiast passengers,
Gripper - ticket inspector,
Gripped - to have your ticket clipped
The Mule - Waterloo - Exeter route
Basher - Enthusiast who follows a particular type of traction for a hobby,
Track basher - Enthusiast who tries to travel on rare track,
Shack bashing - Enthusiast who tries to visit as many stations as possible including especially stations that only have one booked train a decade.
Bible - The large book of all railway timetables,
Crank - similar to basher,
Fester - sitting on a station for hours waiting for your favourite train to take you somewhere else,
Gen - information to help with successful bashing,
Wedged - very full train.

There are many many other silly terms too.

I've always liked the self-mocking "D.A.A." = Daft As A***holes"; applied by railway enthusiasts, to particularly crazily-and-fanatically-obsessed railway enthusiasts -- "if the cap fits..."

 

[CheekyBandit]

390 - Vomit Comet.

 

[507021]

The Class 150 and Class 156 fleets are perfectly adequate workhorses I find. Better than the Class 317/321s I often find myself on.

As much as I don't like the 150s very much, I do agree with this.

 

[delt1c]

Class 25s without code boxes - skinheads.

All class 25's had head code panels . It was the disc fitted 24's which were known as Skinheads

 

[delt1c]

HST's were always Flying Banana's from 1st introduced due to the livery 1st applied.

 

[delt1c]

You can get mini-Dusties as well (320s).

The reason 321's are called Dusty Bins is due to the Quiz show hosted by Ted Rodgers when introduced.

 

[Melancholia]

I've heard the name Pointy Multiple Unit (PMU) used for an HST a couple of times

 

[AnonymousUser1]

Flying Banana - Blue/Grey HST

is 'flying banana' a reinvetion for class 43 hauled NMT then ?

 

[Mag_seven]

Some more from me:

Freightliner (container) train - "liner"
Waste Train - "bins" (as opposed to the Class 321 Dusty Bins refered to upthread)
Sleeper Train - "beds"
Football Special - "footex" or "yobex" or "hooliganex"
Railtour - "crankex"

 

[TimboM]

Class 91s were called "Electras" in early marketing material. Never really caught on.

Nor did "Intercity 225" to any great extent - would've helped if a) they ever went 225 km/h and b) it wasn't a metric number 95% of the population couldn't relate too.


...oh and the Class 89 - Badger

 

[GW43125]

Some more from me:

Railtour - "crankex"

Veg-ex can also be used interchangeably.

Wibble-gen of questionable quality.

 

[Hadders]

Class 365s - smiley trains (well that's what my nephews call them )

 

[341o2]

Long-suffering rail users have all over the world and “since forever”, had fun with railway undertakings’ initials. A few more such:

Stratford-on-Avon & Midland Junction: Slow, Mouldy and Jolting

In Ireland – Sligo, Leitrim & Northern Counties: Slow, Late, and Never Coming

Also “across the pond”, to go with your “Pacific Great Eastern” –

US local lines –

Leavenworth, Kansas & Western: Look, Kuss, and Wait

St. Johnsbury & Lake Champlain: St. Jesus and Late Coming

Further south, the originally US-owned-and-operated Guayaquil & Quito railroad through the Andes in Ecuador, used its initials to style itself in a self-congratulatory way, the Good and Quick. Decades later, when the railroad was long nationalised, run-down, and taking a beating from road competition; someone suggested that a better nickname would be the Grotty and Quaint.

And a bit of a macabre one from France: of the French big pre-nationalisation companies, the Paris – Lyon – Méditerranée was generally acknowledged as the most stylish, dashing, and innovative, with the fastest schedules – unfortunately, it also had the worst safety record. Cynical passengers liked to suggest that the railway’s initials PLM, really stood for “Pour Les Morts” – “for the dead”.

(I’ve always been tickled by the Pacific Great Eastern Railway’s title – it being about as far west in Canada, as you can get ! I gather that this totally non-geographical naming, originated from the undertaking’s having financial backing in its beginnings, from Britain’s Great Eastern Railway or associates thereof.)

Brian Fawcett who chronicled the high altitude Railways of the Andes in the book of the same name suggested that the G&Q was now the Gimcrack and Queer, while another suggestion elsewhere was that PGE stood for Province's Great Expense

 

[30907]

Some more from me:

Freightliner (container) train - "liner"
Waste Train - "bins" (as opposed to the Class 321 Dusty Bins refered to upthread)
Sleeper Train - "beds"
Football Special - "footex" or "yobex" or "hooliganex"
Railtour - "crankex"

Footex was/is an official railway term.
And "binliner" rather than bins?

Long time ago, but I found an early Ian Allan abc which listed nicknames for sundry SR classes - and the Brighton I2 442Ts had a nickname more commonly associated with referees and not normally seen in print in those days. Always wondered whether this was a wind-up relying on IA not knowing the word....

 

[Ash Bridge]

Apparently during the 1960s and well before the bubble car name was coined, the railwaymen of Devon & Cornwall christened the then recently introduced Class 121/122 single car units 'Coffin Nails' the name came about as whenever the units had replaced steam traction on a branch or secondary line the Beeching Axe always seemed to fall within 2/3 or so years from their introduction, and it was usually the bubble cars that were involved in the final (last rites) day's service.

 

[gimmea50anyday]

Robbie - coal train

The 89 was known as the badger but also earned the aardvark name too

The first 20 31's (31/0) were skinheads similar to 24 and 47 rooflines. they were nicknamex toffee apples on account of their power controller handles.. The 31/1 adopting the more familiar roof mounted head code boxes